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In October, U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola (Yup’ik/D-AK) predicted that her race could come down to dozens of votes.
So far, the margin isn’t that close – but still, pretty close.
Rep. Peltola was the first Alaska Native to be elected to Congress. But as KNBA’s Rhonda McBride reports, the Democrat is trailing behind her Republican challenger, Nick Begich.
Alaskans expected Donald Trump to win their state.
The question was: What would be the coattail effect for Nick Begich III?
So far, Begich has just under half of the vote, about 10,500 votes more than Peltola.
His uncle, former U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, is a Democrat and supports Peltola.
Although there’s only about a dozen precincts left to count, these are in predominantly rural and Alaska Native communities with votes that will likely go to Peltola.
Sen. Begich says, although her path to victory is narrow, it’s still there.
He recalled election night in his own race in 2008 against the late Senator Ted Stevens.
“Everyone counted me out. Even the senators back east counted me out, because I remember calling them. I mean, in my election against (U.S. Sen.) Ted Stevens, I was down 3,700 votes election night. Then I won by 3,800 votes.”
Former State Rep. Charisse Millett (Iñupiaq/R-AK) says she’s hoping Peltola will pull through.
Rep. Millett served as Republican House Majority leader.
“We’ll see. I’m hopeful. As a Native woman, I’d like to see Mary prevail.”
But Millett says it won’t be easy.
“I think there’s a path for her to prevail, but it’s really an uphill battle. Everything in the stars has to align in order for her to prevail.”
Begich needs more than 50% of the vote to avoid triggering the next step in Alaska’s ranked choice voting system on November 20. That’s when the votes for two other candidates in the race would be divvied up between Begich and Peltola, depending on who voters ranked as their second choice.
If Begich wins, he would hold the House seat that his grandfather and namesake held, before he died in a plane crash in 1972.
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It is another term for U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids (Ho-Chunk/D-KS). Rhonda LeValdo has more.
With her fourth victory, incumbent Rep. Davids won her reelection with 53% of the vote to Prasanth Reddy’s 42%.
Rep. Davids talked about the hurdles she overcame to get things done for Kansas.
“We have faced so many challenges, rising costs, divisiveness. I mean, there are things like attacks on our basic rights. Things that have made the last few years not easy for a lot of folks. But through it all, we have seen people push forward, pushed toward their solutions, taking the commitment that we have to each other, and our shared commitment for our state, and shared commitment for our country, and doing everything we can.”
While the crowd watched the presidential election results, Haskell student Jacob Curtis (Cherokee citizen) talked about why he drove all day back to Oklahoma to vote as a young person as the crowd cheered to incoming results.
“It is important to vote in our Native communities.“
At the end of Rep. David’s speech, she stated that there is more work to be done in the State of Kansas and hope everyone can work together and get over the divisiveness.
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